Posted on 02/25/2009 12:38:22 AM PST by Swordmaker
Apple, Inc. has made a beta of Safari 4 available to the public and says its the fastest and most innovative browser for the Mac and Windows. New features in Safari 4 include new views, tabs and a Nitro JavaScript engine that Apple says is up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7. Safari 4 is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects.
The browser wars are starting again. Apple on Tuesday launched the public beta of Safari 4. The maker of the Mac is billing its latest browser version as the world's fastest and most innovative for both Mac and Windows PCs. Analysts said Apple is right to brag about its latest innovations.
The Safari 4 beta comes with a slew of new features that aim to make browsing more intuitive and enjoyable. Top Sites, for example, offers a visual preview of frequently visited pages. Full History Search lets you search through titles, Web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages. And Cover Flow lets you flip through Web history or bookmarks much the same way you flip through your album covers on the iPod.
"Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into Web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 Web standards that enables the next generation of interactive Web applications."
The Lightning Round
According to Apple, the Nitro JavaScript engine in Safari 4 is the world's most advanced browser technology. The claims are impressive. Apple said Nitro runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3, up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Apple also said Safari loads HTML Web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.
"It's hard to innovate on the browsing experience these days. It's simple. It's familiar. It works. But Apple really has done some nice stuff with the Safari 4 beta," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret. "I have only been using it for a few minutes, but it definitely feels like there's a speed bump here."
Beyond the speed, Apple has also integrated nine new key features in Safari 4. Tabs on Top aims to offer better tabbed browsing with drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones. The Smart Address Field automatically completes Web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history. And Smart Search Field lets users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches.
What's more, Full Page Zoom offers a closer look at any Web site without degrading the quality of the site's layout and text. Built-in Web developer tools debug, tweak and optimize a Web site for peak performance and compatibility. A new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications. (continued...)
Battling for Browser Share
As Gartenberg sees it, Apple is indicating it is serious about the Web and taking the experience to the next level. Safari 4 includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies so Web-based applications can store information locally without an Internet connection, and is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable Web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks.
"What we have here is a whole new era of browser wars going on with Microsoft , Apple, Mozilla and Google battling it out. The stakes may be different, but they are no less important than they were in the last century," Gartenberg said. "Safari 4 cements the Safari position on Mac OS. Mac OS users have a first-class integrated browsing experience and don't have to look elsewhere. But it also drives the technology further onto the Windows platform."
Tabs on Top
Tabs offer a great way to have multiple pages open at the same time in a single browser window. And to
switch back and forth with a click. Now Safari takes tabbed browsing to new heights — to the very top
of the browser window — instantly providing more room for you to enjoy the sites you’re reading.
Safari also makes it easy to create and manage tabs. To create a new tab, just click the + button in the
upper-right corner of the Safari window. Want to rearrange tabs? Simply drag a tab by its handle and
drop it in a new location in the tab bar. You can also use the handle to drop a tab into another Safari
window. Or quickly create a new window by dragging the tab out to the desktop. You can create a
bookmark from a group of tabs. Or even tell Safari to open a set of tabs every time you open a
new Safari window.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Safari looks prettier but I prefer Firefox. It’s like Safari is slutty Megan Fox and Firefox is good ol’ Sarah Michelle Gellar, but with bigger boobs.
Yup.
Apple’s betas usually work better than Microsoft’s full point releases, anyway. You’ll need to have a good video card and RAM for that multi page “coverflow” web site view, I bet.
This beta is really nice. REALLY nice. With a functioning auto-updating rules-based Adblock now available for Safari, the only thing keeping me from using Safari over Firefox is the total lack of NoScript or an equivalent alternative.
I prefer to think of it as Safari being Denise Milani and Firefox being Jennifer Love Hewitt. :)
Thank you for the heads up.....I really like this version but how do I refresh a page.....
—Megan Fox—
Who?
—Denise Milani—
Again, who? I guess I don’t watch enough TV!
To the right of the URL and to the left of the Search Field is the circular arrow. Click that. While a page is loading, click in that position to stop loading also.
She’s not a TV star. Why don’t you make use of that Google search bar in the upper right corner of your browser?
Refresh button is on the right hand side of the address bar, same place it’s at in the iPhone.
We don't "need" another browser. Firefox can be customized to suit anyone with add-ons and plug-ins and it's plenty fast. Add the IE tab plug-in and you can open Explorer only pages inside Firefox
Opera is probably the fastest of all and is my choice for smartphone browsing.
Safari=Ho Hum.
So, whatever happened to Netscape?
You piqued my curiosity. I just downloaded Safari 4 on a c. 2004 iBook G4; with a definitely not state-of-the-art graphics processor.
Coverflow works on this machine. At the moment, Safari is busily backfilling images of browser history (could take awhile on my minimal DSL line).
Thank you for the info and because of you I finally found it !!!!
Downloaded Safari 4. I like it, think I’ll keep it.
Q: What does it mean when the upper right corner of a page is dog eared to reveal a white star in a field of blue on the Top Sites page?
Choice is never a bad thing. I don’ t particularly like FireFox myself. Opera comes with all of the addons I would use in FireFox standard.
So far this Beta has been really impressive.
I think it means the page has changed since it was last visited.
I really like Safari 4. I see you can edit the Top Sites page display to show smaller or larger pages.
I just used the history feature to get back to your question after I saw the answer in another forum.
Another very cool feature- when you enlarge the text, the images also enlarge- like the iPhone.
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